Phase diagram and electronic properties of high-T-c superconducting oxides

We firstly briefly summarize some of the most relevant recent results and open questions across rather complex electronic phase diagram of cuprates. We continue with a discussion of results on thin superconducting oxide films grown by laser ablation. Systematic studies show that BSCCO-phases and LSCO-214 exhibit conductor-like Fermi edge, whereas materials containing "chains" (like YBCO-123) are prone to very rapid surface degradation, most likely related to critical oxygen loss at the outermost layers. Recently, direct ARPES dispersion measurements on in-situ grown, strained 10UC thin LSCO-214 films (T-C = 44 K) have shown the band crossing of Fermi level well before the Brillouin zone boundary. This is in contrast to the flat band observed in unstrained single crystals - and to the band flattening predicted by band calculations for in-plane compressive strain. In spite of density of states reduction near the Fermi level, the critical temperature increases in strained films with respect to unstrained crystals; this poses further challenge to HTSC theory